Part 7 — Mountain, Lake and Trekking
This is a part of a series of blog posts about our bike trip to Kashmir from Kerala. The travelogue is split into several blogs. You can find the intro and the link to all blogs here
Day 17(01/05/2017)
Mandi — Bagi — Prashar
Distance: 30km(bike) + 8km(trek)
ODO: 5119km
Woke up earlier than usual, took a cold shower and left the room by 7 am. After Paratha for breakfast, we left for Bagi village. We had kept all our luggage in the hotel room for safekeeping, we were only left with two small backpacks. So we took only one bike, it was Sree’s.
I remember once seeing a photo of Prashar lake in some Instagram feed and how badly I wanted to visit this place. So, as soon as we decided to do this trip, I wanted to include this trek. We had planned to do it on our way back from Ladakh, but since we had to delay our trip to wait out the snowfall in Zozila pass, we had decided to shuffle the plan and prepone some places. Prashar trek was one of it.
Bagi village is about 30km from Mandi. There is a bus service to Prashar but we opted to do the trek which starts from Bagi. We reached there by 9 am, and asked a guy running a tea shop to let us keep our bike there. When we asked about the trek route, he pointed at a slope which didn’t look like a trek route, but a landslide.
The starting point of the trek to Prashar!!
We had a cup of tea and started our trek. There were truck tracks on the road for some distance and after that, we had to climb over the rocks and find our own way. The guy at the shop had told us about the route and some landmarks and we were following that. After some mild rock climbing, we ended up on a road, which we were to follow. At some point down the road, we were supposed to leave the road and head up the mountain and into the wild. But we didn’t know when. Luckily we found a few people and when we asked the route to Prashar, each and every one replied with an obvious look by pointing to the top of the mountain, “UP”. After a couple of this Q&A, we understood that there was no pre-defined trekking route. You just needed to somehow climb to the top of the mountain. So at a random turn, when the forest and the slope looked a bit compromising, we decided to leave the road.
We were quite easily tired and took frequent breaks, but kept going.
We did meet a few people in between who were doing their daily rounds for gathering firewood. We met 2 kids, probably a brother and sister and they helped us with some shortcuts through the bushes.
The slope kept getting steeper and we were getting tired, but we were somehow drawing energy from the beauty of the landscape. While we were taking rest after some rigorous climbing, we saw a lady probably in her 80s, climbing up the slope that just exhausted us and that too carrying a bundle of firewood on her back. The slope didn’t seem to be having any effect on her whatsoever. By the little time that it took her for climbing up the slope and reaching us, we blamed ourself for our unhealthy lifestyle. We blamed the whole IT sector for the health of people like us. Having to sit long days without any activity and add to that our unhealthy food habits.
When she reached us, she sat near us. We sat there looking at her in admiration and beyond our wildest imagination, she took out a matchbox and asked us for a cigarette. We were mindblown. Our whole concept of a healthy lifestyle was shattered. There she was, in her 80s having a smoke, and carrying a bundle of firewood and climbing impossible slopes as a daily routine. We had to disappoint her though but instead offered a few chocolates. She took them and sat there eating it. After a few minutes, we parted our ways.
As we reached a plain grassland, we decided to lay down for some time, and then another guy climbed up to us. He seemed to have been trekking behind us. He instantly guessed that we were from Kerala. He was alone and he was actually trekking down. He had taken the bus up to Prashar the previous day and decided to trek his way down, but since there was no proper trekking trail, it is exponentially more difficult to trek down. While there is only one way up, there are a hundred different ways down. Any way you go, you’ll somehow end up at the top, but you can’t say the same about going down. If you take a wrong turn, you might end up at some other part of the mountain, and you can even get stuck. This guy was roaming around the forest looking for the way down for about 2 hours. Without any luck, he decided to head back up to catch the bus to Mandi. We trekked together for some time and later he hurried up ahead of us to catch the bus. We were in no hurry.
The landscape switched between dense forest and grasslands. And as we neared the top, it was grasslands again. When we were on the final stretch of the trek we heard sounds of drums being played. It sounded like some kind of a procession. We walked towards the sound and saw a procession far away.
We walked in the direction that the procession was leading and it was actually towards the Prashar temple.
We reached Prashar by 1 pm. There was a festival going on at the temple. The deities from the temples in nearby villages are brought to the Prashar temple as a grand procession and some rituals are performed at the temple. We were lucky to have chosen that day for the trek.
We followed one such procession and saw the rituals inside the temple.
Prashar is famous for the lake and in particular the small island inside the lake. The beauty of it is that it is a floating island and it moves around the lake. It doesn’t seem to be affected by wind, waves or the tide. It also does not constantly move around. It might stay at a place for months, and when it decides to move, it moved at a comparatively fast pace, that is visible to the observer. No one knows what causes the movement.
The water level in the lake also remains the same how much ever it rains or how hot it gets.
There were also claims about 2 divers from Germany trying to measure the depth of the lake and failing.
However, I was not able to find a trusted source for that info, so take it with a pinch of salt. However, I managed to screen record a gif of the island at different points in time from Google Earth.
After the procession and the ceremonies, we ate lunch, rajma chawal from a small shop near the temple. After relaxing for some time and playing with some cute dogs wandering around the temple we decided to take a stroll around the lake. One of the dogs decided to give us company and walked with us the whole time.
We had decided to stay there for the night and leave by bus the next day, so we were in no hurry. We went to the PWD Guesthouse and confirmed the room that we had already booked over the phone. Later we came back to the temple and climbed the small hill on one side of the lake and laid down for a while.
We roamed around the temple till sunset and went back to the guesthouse. The dinner was served at the guest house itself. Since there was no network connectivity we weren’t disturbed by social media notifications. We slept after a tiring but at the same time a relaxing day. Never knew a day can be both of that.
Day 18(02/05/2017)
Prashar — Bagi — Mandi
Distance: 10km(bus) — 30km(bike)
ODO: 5149km
Woke up early and went to the lake again. Ate Maggi for breakfast and then climbed to another viewpoint which is the topmost point in the area.
Some people were playing cricket on a small patch of flat land on one side of the hill. Every time the ball goes off the edge, one of them had to go all the way down to fetch it. I remember when we were kids we used to feel frustrated when the ball went into a bush or went across the fence and we had to jump over it. That was nothing compared to this.
After coming back to the guesthouse we checked-out and hopped on the bus back to Bagi. The really bad road and the topsy turvy bus ride till Bagi was even more tiring than the trek itself. The bus was going till Mandi, but since we had our bike kept at Bagi, we hopped off there. Had a cup of tea and headed back to Mandi.
We reached back to the hotel room by 4 pm. The hotel was situated at the edge of the river and the road was about 3 storeys higher to the lake, so we actually enter the hotel at the topmost floor and we walk down the stairs to the rooms. Initially, our rooms were 2 storeys down and had to carry all luggage down those stairs, and while we were off to Prashar, we took all the bags again to the topmost floor where the manager of the hotel slept. When we reached we knew we’d have to take all the bags downstairs again, but seeing our plight, the manager vacated his room and let us stay in there for the night.
After that was sorted out, we went out to a local market. Sree had lost his gloves and we also need some extra woollen gloves. The hotel manager had suggested us to check out Indira Market.
Indira Market was a beautifully designed market building, It was a square-shaped building with a large courtyard garden in the middle. People were coming in for their evening walk in the garden and the shops were busy. You could get anything and everything in there. After walking around the market we bought the things we needed and went back to the room. When I got to my bike, I noticed that my self-start was not working. I assumed it was a problem with the battery because I frequently forgot to turn off the LED light that was fitted onto the bike when we stopped for tea or to rest. I even forgot to switch off and take the key from the bike several times. I had to take it to a mechanic. But Sree was not feeling well. After the rough bus ride, he was having a mild headache and by the time we reached the hotel, he was having a small fever. So I dropped him back to the hotel room, and he took some medicines and went to sleep. I went out to take my bike to a mechanic.
The mechanic checked the battery and found out that it was dead. He said that we could try recharging it, but since we were on a long trip, it’s better to change it. I called my mechanic back home and he also suggested the same. So I decided to get it replaced. Now to bring back the old battery, I had to cut open one of the jerry cans we were carrying for fuel and secured it with a rope.
Back home, Anu was meeting with my family for dinner. I felt extremly happy for it but sad at the same time that I couldn’t be there. I was constantly on the phone with eveyone helping them pick out a restaurant and navigating them to her hostel and everything. It was one of the most precious moments in my life that I couldn’t experience firsthand.
